This invention relates to a novel pressure/load sensing device. In particular, this invention relates to a pressure/load sensing device utilizing a polymer optical coupler comprised of a flexible thermoplastic aliphatic segmented polyurethane waveguide and a second optical waveguide.
Conventional electronic pressure/load sensors suffer from electromagnetic pickup interference. The use of optical waveguide based pressure/load sensors eliminates the problem of electromagnetic interference. However, present optical waveguides are primarily fabricated from glass or hard glassy polymers such as acrylics and styrenics. Such optical waveguides possess low flexibility and low strength. Such polymer optical waveguides also sometimes possess low use temperatures. These limitations of the present optical waveguides result in optical waveguide based pressure/load sensors which are easily damaged.
What is needed is a durable pressure/load sensor which is immune to electromagnetic interference. The pressure/load sensor should also possess a zero-based signal.